I brought a friend to see this show; I was excited to introduce him to Cirque Du Soleil (I've seen 4 of them). I found myself apologising for the show - had to explain that it shouldn't put him off seeing the others. Too much slap stick pantomime and not enough aerial skills. I was embarrassed.

This isn't the first circus with a story I've seen, but its the best. No animal acts, clowns in minicars or individual stand alone performances, this sort of circus is highly stylized with a usually vague story, singing and music to blend one act after another.Some of the performers come from long lines of family acts, but there's also a fair number of Olympic caliber athletes looking to work their talent outside of competition. The acts are not all great, but are at least good and a few are exceptional. I thought it was pretty amazing that they are all done flawlessly in front of a live audience: Not one dropped prop, clumsy trip, dorky fall or wardrobe malfunction.I'm not often drawn to the artsy/pouffy sort of humor. It tends to be too French for me, and it just doesn't appeal. Not all things French, just their humor. Any sound effects resembling gastrointestinal activity are apparently the ultimate comedy. The least appealing parts of Varekai involved that same French humor, and knocks the score down a little. I enjoyed the other comic acts in the show, whether they were French or not.You can't beat a live circus show, but there are some advantages with watching this one on a widescreen. It was shot in HD format so it naturally takes in wider shots, and there's many angle shots, overheads and closeups that the live audience would never see. Colors are almost oversaturated but thats because so much of the circus is in bright primary colors. Varekai even has a DTS soundtrack and employs all the 5.1 system to good effect. The 2nd disc has some bio info on the performers and a short on getting selected and training for a live performance. The DVD set comes in a foldout box within a box, and gets an 8/10.

We just saw the Boston production. It was awful. Way too much of the artsy circus stuff...WAY too little of impressive acts. The comic relief was terrible (the performers were good, the MATERIAL was bad)There was one group in the first act that was interesting. The 2nd act was a little better. The jugglers were great. The large swings at the end were fabuluous. The woman contortionst was excellent but the overall production and pageantry was a snoozer. And you would thing they would know how to make a sound system work in their own tents by now. Were they actually singing words? who can tell?Dralion was a FAR superior show.

I absolutely loved Varekai the very first time I saw it. I'll admit that I wasn't much of a fan of the artsy circus world at first, but now I'm totally fascinated with it! The makeup is awesome (and at times can make some of the characters quite sexy!) and the costumes are fabulous! Not to mention the fantastic acrobatics and occasional funny moments. Varekai is by far my favorite of all the Cirque shows. I only wish it could've come here to my hometown. Oh well, I bought it on DVD so I can watch it whenever I want. I even got a few of my co-workers hooked on it. Of course Varekai is their favorite as well! Go figure. I'll make them all Cirque fans if it kills me. All in all I highly recommend it!